


The Unthinkable

by Gem_Gem



Category: Watchmen (Comic)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-31 00:45:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3958111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gem_Gem/pseuds/Gem_Gem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...If he had arrived sooner. If he had bypassed one route to take another…</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unthinkable

With a tormented inhalation - the clump of air hard and sharp in his throat - Rorschach reached out, his fingers grazing pale flesh, ice cold, the chill seeping through leather to crawl up his arm, raising a prickle of misery in its wake. 

...If he had arrived sooner. If he had bypassed one route to take another…

Lifeless now, Dan swayed slowly, the creak of rope loud and foreboding. Head bowed and curtained in blood-slicked hair, he hung in the doorway of his bedroom. His thigh bumping into the doorframe with a soft thud. The gentle rhythm cruelly synchronised with the patter of crimson droplets, thick and congealed as they hit the floorboards. 

Rorschach trembled, shoes squeaking and slipping in panicked jerks as he rushed forwards, hands clawing at an unmoving chest. Skin numb and unresponsive beneath his rough touch.

He snaked an arm, tense and shaking, around the cool midriff. The grip tight. Skin easily bruising as he lifted the body. As he lifted Daniel. The burden brisk and automatic.

Daniel swung violently, thumping against the doorframe once more, the noise strident and deep. Echoing horribly down the blood-soaked hallway.

Rorschach rocked up, pressing and bucking against the cold body as he frantically tugged at the knot, fingers suddenly useless and disobedient. The rope tightened with a groan, tearing at ashen skin and Rorschach growled in anguish, yanking until something gave and he fell, tripping backwards to land with Daniel held within trembling arms.

Cupping Daniel's lax head, he ripped at the makeshift noose, tremors of increasing hopelessness rippling through his body. The tightness in his chest slowly consuming him, becoming unbearable as it threatened to spill forth. To fill the space between them with an uproar of despair.

When the twine was finally pulled free, Rorschach hooked up his mask, his teeth biting into soft leather as he wriggled a freckled hand from its casing and pressed it, quivering, into the abused throat. Fingers searching and digging, seeking out, and finding nothing.

His head shook, lips moving and forming silent pleas as his hand wandered with shivering urgency. Trailing down Daniel's arm to attach to his wrist, pushing down against the tendons. Nothing.

With a choked wail, his hand rose then slammed into Daniel's chest once, then twice, before grasping Daniel's jaw. "No!" He gripped harder, blunt and bitten nails slicing at Daniel's face. "No! N-no, no, no, no! S-stupid! Stupid fool!! Wake up!"

Daniel's head slipped from his fingers, turning away from him, his eyes blind and unblinking. "Wake up!! Wake--…w-wake…wake…please…Daniel…" He whispered, fisting his hand into brown locks as he broke, curling in on himself and leaning over Daniel's form, bumping his forehead against his. "No…don't leave me…"

Shifting, Rorschach pulled him closer, adjusting him carefully and unconsciously sweeping an unruly curl from his face, his throat seizing at the inert stare that was presented to him. The once warm eyes, now dull and vacant.

Unnoticed in the corner of the hall, sat Daniel's glasses, reflecting the scene within scarlet covered lenses.

**Author's Note:**

> A short one-shot story of mine. This piece, I am quite proud of, I adore writing emotional scenes.
> 
> Posted on my DA June 13th, 2010 but written before then, one of many Watchmen fanfictions that I wrote like a woman obsessed...which I still am.


End file.
